Interview: Ross Becker

(June 21)

I really enjoy Ross's work – the flat, pale sky of that illustration is the stuff that English summers are made of, and the sheer profusion of pinks in the bedroom piece below is delightful (and is that a poster printed in Riso orange and teal on the bookcase?).

My work, and in particular the rose-tinted, high contrast colour choices, are loosely inspired by old film photographs and Hollywood films from the 1980s and 90s.

I also like the way that photographs left in the sun gradually fade to blue; I often exaggerate the blue tints in my images for that reason. I work predominantly in Photoshop, often bringing in elements of pencil drawing, painting and scanned-in texture.

There is something quiet and contemplative about the figures and settings within my work and I like to think it sparks intrigue as to what might be happening outside of the frame; the same feeling I get when I look at nostalgic old photographs.

In the past year I’ve worked on some really interesting commissions including a coffee brew guide poster for the Tens Hundreds Thousands project, a collection of audiobook covers for an app, and a string of editorial illustrations. In my spare time I developed some personal pieces into a series of two-colour Risographs, which taught me a lot about that particular method of printing.

I’m also working on some exciting book projects in the background which I aim to get published in the future - one is a short wordless comic, the other is a longer form non-fiction book that I researched myself over the first lockdown.

I really like drawing with a Pentel P205 HB mechanical pencil. It’s the most satisfying pencil I’ve ever used. As I enjoy working in a very organised fashion and don’t make a lot of mess, the mechanical pencil offers a degree of meticulousness and a strong, dark line that can be hard to achieve with other mediums.

I’ve also been experimenting with Promarkers in my sketchbook; they really satisfy my desire to fill in blank spaces with fields of flat colour. I’ve had the same watercolour set for 12 years which I use sparingly to paint mid-tones into some of my drawings. Besides that, I use a mouse to produce the majority of my work in Photoshop - it’s probably not the best way to do it, but it’s how I’ve always done it and on some level, it’s probably pivotal to the feel of the shapes in my work.

If you could have a magical power, what would it be?
The ability to have access to a Riso printer whenever I like would be pretty magic!